Clynelish 20 Year Old 1995 Signatory Vintage

My favorite vintage for Clynelish is without a doubt 1997, but this is close enough. Bottled in that beautiful but clumsy decanter by Signatory in 2016, we are talking about a malt that matured for 20 years on a refill sherry butt that yielded no less than 613 bottles.

Very powerful and aromatic nose on stone fruit such as peach and mango, but also a hint of rubber boots. Sounds a lot less good than it smells, because this nose is excellent. Quince and figs, tiger balm and leather. Nicely waxy, as it should be.

Wholehearted and immediately very sweet and complexly seasoned. Salted caramel with fig jam. Haribo bears and chewing tobacco. Toffee and a hint of milk chocolate, while something of nuts appears. The spices translate to pepper and cloves. This is really very good stuff.

The long, warm finish starts sweet but then evolves into spicy and dry. Orange zest on the deathbed.

Blissfully complex Clynelish, where the influence of the cask is great, but does not mask the distillery character. Thank you for the sample, Bob!